In an age when AI is generating what the Australian patent office calls 'slopplications,' and they've seen a 174% spike in self-filed applications, your role as curator and quality guardian has never been more critical.
Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the books in the world. I couldn't help but think of little Francie Nolan who, like Smith, grew up in the tenements of Brooklyn in the early 20th century and aimed, as a young girl, to read every book she could find as I tore through librarian Jarrett Dapier's debut young adult graphic novel, Wake Now in the Fire.
Public Resource acquires and makes available online a wide variety of public documents such as tax filings, government-produced videos, and federal rules about safety and product designs. Those rules are initially created through private standards organizations and later incorporated into federal law. Such documents are often difficult to access otherwise, meaning the public cannot read, share, or comment on them.
Around 2013 in Taiwan's context, when Facebook started to take over the digital ecosystem in Taiwan, many local independent bulletin boards that had been formed for sexual minorities were shut down because they had no income from advertisements, and people were pushed into mainstream platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Meta, whatever, Twitter now X where sexual expression was usually reported or flagged.
Last year was a record-setting one for education censorship; more than half of U.S college and university students now study in a state with at least one law or policy restricting what can be taught or how college campuses can operate, according to a new report from PEN America, a nonprofit that advocates for campus free speech and press freedom.
It's more obvious than ever why recording encounters with federal agents matters: without bystander videos, it would be much harder to disprove the government's Orwellian lies about how Alex Pretti was killed last Saturday. But there are also risks when you pull out your phone to take a video at a protest or if you see an ICE agent abducting, say, a 5-year-old child. Here's what to know about how to protect your technology and yourself.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has rounded up several of these counter surveillance projects, and perhaps unsurprisingly many of these have to do with Flock, best known for its automated license plate reader (ALPR). Flock operates the largest network of surveillance cameras in America, and, while it has contracts with thousands of police departments and municipalities across the US, sometimes ICE gains access to this footage, according to US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and those who have looked into Flock's misuse.
"Don't play Russian roulette with [this man's] life," Jon told lead DHS prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, in the email. "Err on the side of caution. There's a reason the US government along with many other governments don't recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency." Five hours later, per WaPo, Jon received a response - not from Dernbach or the DHS, but from Google.
